Archive of papers

This paper gives an account of the debate between F.A. Hayek and J.M. Keynes in the 1930s written for the common reader. The purpose for this is twofold. First to provide the general reader with a narrative of what happened, …

An integrated system of economic theory and policy allowed for the free market price of land to cyclically go down to zero and facilitated the restitution of the land to the original possessor on the year of the Jubilee. A …

There are three main claims in this paper: First, there is sufficient evidence for affirming that Ricardo adhered to Smith’s productivity theory; second, Ricardo’s original demonstration of the comparative-advantage proposition is indeed compatible and complementary with respect to the latter; …

Adam Smith’s “natural price” has long been interpreted as a “normal price” or “center of gravitation price” based on the famous gravitation metaphor of the Wealth of Nations I.vii, natural in the sense that it is the price that would …

The paper briefly summarizes the historical evolution of TNCs and their activities. It then introduced the major theories developed to explain the TNC. There is an attempt to place the theories historically, within the context of the socio-economic conditions and …

This paper identifies the major failings of mainstream economics and the rational choice theory it relies upon. These failures were identified by the four figures mentioned in the title: economics treats agents as rational fools; by the time the long …

The mainstream view about the irrelevance of the history of economic thought (HET) is illustrated, and the reasons for it are indicated in the hidden assumption of a positivist idea about the cumulative growth of knowledge. HET is however very …

The paper analyzes Robert Heilbroner’s philosophy of economics through the lens of Max Weber’s philosophy of science. Specifically, Heilbroner’s position on vision, ideology and value-freedom is examined by contextualizing it within a framework of Weberian science. Doing so leads to …

This paper submits that while David Hume and Adam Smith are presumed to be founders of modernism in philosophy and economics they already were what now would be deemed post-modern. It outlines Hume’s concept of ‘the reflexive mind’ and to …

Due to a precise definition of comparative advantage and a deeper understanding of the logical interrelationships between this proposition and the two other main elements in David Ricardo’s famous numerical example in the Principles – the classical rule of specialization …

It is, I think, interesting to compare the views of E. F. Schumacher and J. M. Keynes on the ethical aspects of economics – both the economic systems of which they were a part and economics as a subject. Both …

Adam Smith takes a stand that clearly differs from that of the doctrinaire liberalism that would take shape in the first third of the 19th Century. He does not imagine that social life takes place in a neutral, politically aseptic …

This paper shows that Marshall’s theory is generally equivalent to Walras’s one. It shows that Walras used two types of demand functions: (1) the original (ordinary) demand curve (function); and (2) the derived (general) demand function. Marshall also used both …

Adam Smith rejected Mandeville’s invisible-hand doctrine of ‘private vices, publick benefits’. In The Theory of Moral Sentiments his model of the ‘impartial spectator’ is driven by not by sympathy for other people, but by their approbation. Approbation needs to be …

For much economics research, ethics committee approval is not required. This is seen by some as indicating that there are no ethical issues in economics research. However, ethical research requires more than simply meeting regulatory requirements. If economics research has …

Within the discussion of ethics and economics some have considered designing a code of ethics for economists. But the idea of such a code is potentially problematic from a pluralist standpoint. Some possibilities are discussed here to show that any …

This paper is the written version of a verbal presentation to the 2011 conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics, held at Nottingham Trent University, 6‐9 July 2011. It presents the case for the ethical scrutiny of the economics profession, …

This paper examines the ‘concrete analogies’ underpinning the ontological commitments of dominant conceptions of ethics, politics and economics to show that the content of economics is implicated in conceptions of ethics, and that these conceptions cannot be separated from questions …

A Good Society needs to be built on an economic system that differs significantly from the current finance capitalist models around the world. In light of the claim of personal freedom, emancipation and choice within and through a Good Society, …

The difficult dialogue between human rights and business shows that neither the adoption of codes of conduct nor the enforcement of legal norms would overcome the supposed incompatibility of ethics and economics. Such a general supposition is the effect of …